{"id":273083,"date":"2026-05-16T03:17:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T03:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/273083\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T03:17:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T03:17:10","slug":"really-deep-roots-historic-family-name-graces-new-north-causeway-bridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/273083\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Really deep roots&#8217;: Historic family name graces new North Causeway Bridge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>FORT PIERCE, Fla. \u2014 The new <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wptv.com\/news\/local-news\/our-community\/fort-pierce\/new-a1a-north-causeway-bridge-opens-friday-eliminating-drawbridge-and-railroad-crossings\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">A1A North Causeway Bridge<\/a> opened to drivers on Friday. But the bridge is officially named the E.C. Summerlin Family Bridge.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a family that&#8217;s synonymous with Fort Pierce and St. Lucie County history. <\/p>\n<p>North Causeway Bridge is named after historic Fort Pierce family<\/p>\n<p>WPTV listened to Peggy Summerlin-Allen, great-granddaughter of E.C. Summerlin. He was one of the first residents of what would become St. Lucie County, back in 1888. <\/p>\n<p>Summerlin was a pineapple farmer, then a fishing guide and game warden. He and his wife Polly Ann charted many of the first churches in the county.<\/p>\n<p>The Summerlin family also said they claim the first school teacher in St Lucie County. <\/p>\n<p>E.C. and Polly Ann had 14 children, and the family tree is still blossoming on the Treasure Coast.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wptv.com\/news\/local-news\/our-community\/fort-pierce\/north-causeway-bridge-to-open-may-15-after-117-million-project-and-businesses-hope-for-a-boost\" class=\"ListItem \" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"ListItem-category\">Fort Pierce<\/p>\n<p>    Locals hope reopening of North Causeway Bridge will boost business <\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe do have really deep roots in a lot of Florida history, Fort Pierce history and St. Lucie history,\u201d said Peggy Summerlin- Allen. \u201cMajority of our family members do live on this North River still today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As far as this bridge goes, it&#8217;s open for drivers, but bike lanes and the shared walking path are not ready just yet. <\/p>\n<p>The former drawbridge is also closed, and demolition will begin late 2027.<\/p>\n<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776291667_422_.jpeg\" alt=\"REP_CARD_TYLER-HATFIELD_PORT-ST-LUCIE-_FS.jpg\"  width=\"1280\" height=\"720\"\/><\/p>\n<p>WPTV<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT PIERCE, Fla. \u2014 The new A1A North Causeway Bridge opened to drivers on Friday. But the bridge&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[113307,116773,116774,171,173,172],"class_list":["post-273083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-a1a-north-causeway-bridge","tag-e-c-summerlin","tag-e-c-summerlin-family-bridge","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}